24 Hour Escape

In truth, this is my third 24 hour escape this season -- the first was to Boston for my uncle's memorial gathering, the second was with the Friday Club to Baltimore for non-stop lounging, and this time Jon and I went to a B&B in Trump Country.

Part of the challenge of getting away is just finding the day that will be the least disruptive to the farm.  After some thought, we decided that the period from 2:30 PM Thursday to 2:30 on Friday would be okay.  I got up very early on Thursday to pick all the zinnias and lettuce for Saturday, and then went out to Loudoun to be part of the team out there for a bit.  I even got to go to Farm Yoga in the Green Barn, which felt so delicious.  There was a steady breeze blowing through the barn, even though it was baking hot out in the sun.

Before we left the farm we took showers at our totally deluxe outdoor shower at Timothy's. It is my favorite venue for getting cleaned up, outside in the open air with great water pressure and good hot water (briefly, you can't dawdle).

We discovered as soon as we got in the car (a farm vehicle) that there was no air conditioning. Ugh.  I sent Mark Trader a text to see if he was home, and he was, so we went by his house to see if he could fix the problem. As it turned out, he couldn't fix it but he and Jon tried for a while and I got my bathing suit on and floated in his swimming pool.  The vacation was off to a delightful start.

Then I took a nap while Jon drove for an hour (with the windows down), getting us to our B&B in a part of Maryland we have never visited, near the Potomac River, about halfway between Cumberland and DC. He chose that area because I always want to find water to submerge my whole self and the C&O Canal is an interesting historical place.

The B&B was an 1855 farm house that is on the National Historical Register. It is a house that was sold to developers, included when the family farm was sold, about 10 years ago and then a granddaughter bought the house back when it was clearly sitting there abandoned and unwanted. The developer had built lots of houses on the farm but had never done anything with the house and dairy barn and other farm buildings. She renovated it beautifully and is still working on various projects on her 7 acres. It was exquisitely comfortable.

Last night we wandered around (in the murky heat) in Williamsport, down by the canal and we chanced upon a jazz concert, performed by a small group of park rangers who were celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service.  Sousaphone, saxophone, trumpet played by a guest performer who just showed up, drums, electric guitar (which became a banjo when their generator shut down), keyboard.  When they lost electricity, they left their stage and walked closer to the little audience, New Orleans style.

The only railroad bridge on the C&O Canal that raises up so boats can go under it.

The New Orleans style jazz band, without electric amplification.

This morning we went to the visitor's center and museum and learned about the history of the canal and barges and mules and how it all came to an end in 1924.  As so often happens, we had our own private guide so we could ask lots of questions.  We learned the intricacies of barges passing each other (one towpath, two mules going in opposite directions, two long boats), how the mules got their rest, and other fascinating details. It was all about the mules.

Hana in the Potomac River

But what I really wanted to do was find some water.  We asked the park ranger for directions to McMahon's Mill where we had heard about a swimming hole of some kind.  When we got to the river, we asked an elderly couple (sitting in chairs, fishing off the edge of the towpath) if they knew of this swimming hole, and they had heard of it  but had never seen it.  So we got our suits on and walked up the towpath.  Eventually after turning around and heading back, sweaty and disappointed, we found the much-talked-about tree with the tree rope and the way to climb down into the water.  The water felt great and I tried not to imagine what was down below where we couldn't see.  Someday I want to swim in the kind of water that I can see my feet.  That doesn't happen in this region. We have to go somewhere with an actual lake someday.

We got back to the Loudoun farm by 2:30 after an entirely satisfying escape.  Thanks to the miracle of texting, the workers had loaded my vehicle for me and I got in and headed back to Vienna.  The whole plan worked.  We can do it again, nothing went wrong, everyone got all the picking done, and nobody missed us.